


In The Shade Of A Great Tree

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: The Lessons of the Goddess of Shinobi [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Female Senju Hashirama, Male-Female Friendship, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-03-02 09:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18808501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: After Tobirama negotiated his own hand in marriage, Hashirama decides she's done waiting.





	In The Shade Of A Great Tree

In the weeks since Tobirama's marriage, Madara was a little ashamed to admit he was entirely charmed by the man's new wife. 

Mito was grace and poise, all smooth tenors and elegant design. How she maintained it, he had no idea - Hashirama was a disaster at all times, without exception - but he could see what Tobirama had been keen enough on. She also had no slack for his nonsense, and her sweet voice came with a firm hand. Hashirama liked her too, which made her squeeze into his life more manageable. He'd never seen Hashirama jealous, and wasn't intent on finding out. 

Therefore, in his moment of crisis, it only made sense that Mito was the one to find him. 

"Madara!" She rushed over to him, dropping to her knees to pull back his hair. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm going to die, Mito." He whimpered, splashing his face with the lake water and rinsing out his mouth. 

"You were poisoned?"

"Of all times, this is where my nerves abandon me." He laughed bitterly.

"I don't understand." She stroked down his back. 

"Hashirama and Tobirama are planning our wedding." He sat back and she sat on her legs with him, frowning in confusion. "I thought she might be joking. She gets that way, odd when she's under pressure or when she's not pleased with how something happened."

"I've noticed." She agreed. 

"But she wasn't. She really wants to marry me."

"And is that . . . a bad thing?" She raised an eyebrow. 

"No, and that's what scares me." He took a deep breath to fight back the nausea. "She's committed to this. She  _wants_ me."

"Well, yeah." Mito looked at him quizzically. "If there's ever been a person who's more in love than Hashirama is with you, I've not met them."

"Really?"

"For such an incredibly neurotic man, you really have no self awareness, do you?" She flicked his forehead. 

"Evidently not." He scowled back, but there was no threat to it and they both knew it. 

"I've not been here long." She admitted. "But you are both very deeply in love. She adores you, every inch of you. She was ready to walk into a blind marriage for her village, but who was she with while that was happening? She needed you, needed to take what of you she could. Make peace with what could have been, with letting go of what and who she wanted. Even to me, that's obvious." 

The tightness in his chest eased and he leaned into her with an exhausted sigh. "I'm an idiot."

She pet his head. "Yes. But that doesn't mean you don't deserve her."

"Thank you, Mito."

"You're welcome, Madara. Now go find her and work those frustrations out in a more constructive manner."

"Why, Mito. I didn't know you had it in you."

"I'm surprising." She winked. "Now go."

* * *

It was riding the high of Mito's encouragement that he laid eyes on it.

It stopped him dead in his tracks and at once, he knew he needed it. He let his impulse guide him, going into the shop and purchasing it. The shopkeep was understandably surprised to see him, but was gracious enough. He even offered to wrap it, but Madara declined. He took the small box and tucked it into his kimono, hiding it amongst the layers of fabric. He couldn't keep his hand off it, pressed against his breast, and rushed over to Hashirama's apartments in the Senju compound. 

The guards let him in wordlessly and he hurried with single-minded determination to her chambers. No one made mention of it as he passed through, too familiar a sight to many of the civilian Senju. 

Opening her door, he found her sitting on the floor with Tobirama, planning the wedding under the guise of going over scrolls. 

"Madara?" She asked, sitting up straighter. Her face pinched in worry.

"Are you alright?" Tobirama asked and that clued him back into reality. He was standing in her door, hand gripping the fabric over his heart and wild-eyed. 

Hashirama didn't wait much longer. She was on her feet and in front of him in seconds, her hands the soft blue-green of her chakra. 

"I'm not hurt." He managed. 

She paused just over his chest, frowning. "Yeah, you look it."

"No, I-" His body reacted before he did, reaching into his robes and pulling out the bamboo box. "This."

"What about it?" She didn't touch it and he swallowed thickly. He'd never given her a gift before, never given any woman he'd been interested in anything more than his time. 

"It's for you."

Tobirama stood with a sigh. "I'll show myself out."

She went to speak, but hesitated long enough for her brother to leave. Madara was vibrating, hidden only by the weight of his robes. 

"Open it." Tobirama said as he shut the door. "Before he blows a fuse."

She looked down at the box in his hands and took it, gently opening the lid. 

"Madara . . . " She whispered, her eyes wide. Resting benignly inside the small box was a necklace. Made of leather, the chain supported two shining silver balls that bracketed in a long blue crystal that shimmered and refracted light in every direction. 

"It's for you." He blurted, his chest tight with anticipation and anxiety. "I saw it and knew you needed to have it."

She met his gaze again and her eyes were wet. "Really?"

"Yes."

She handed him back the box, turned around, and pulled her hair out of the way. "Help me put in on?"

His hands shook as he clasped it, but all that anxious energy morphed into lust as she turned to face him again. The gem rested just at the cusp of her cleavage, the silver balls bracketing it shining brightly against her sienna skin tone. His exhale was trembling, his whole body stuck without instructions as his emotions battled for dominance. 

"What do you think?" Hashirama, too, must have felt the shift in the atmosphere, because her voice was low and soft; seductive, or as much as a woman such as her could achieve. 

"I look forward more and more," he took a breath, trying and failing to remain calm, "to when I will get to see you in only that necklace."

She hummed a chuckle, charmed by his poor flattery, and took his hands. "Tobirama and I have arranged the wedding for tomorrow evening. Tobi, Mito and a few of my clansmen will be there. Was there anyone you wanted from your clan?"

"I have two cousins I would count as friends."

"Give Mito their names tomorrow and it'll be done. We'll be wed." She broke out into a smile. "Then, you can have me in just this chain until our bodies give out."

His breath shuttered in his chest. "You have such a way of grabbing my imagination."

"Don't I, though?"

* * *

The wedding itself was as simple an affair as shinobi could ever want. Three of her clansmen and two of his cousins were seated, along with Tobirama and Mito on either side. Mito stood with him instead of his mother, and Tobirama with Hashirama instead of their father. The elder was a Senju one, but he didn't really care. It was the same elder who officiated Mito's wedding. 

There was little ceremony, for which he was grateful. Hashirama was only in an elegant, if simple, white kimono with her hair pinned back. Tobirama had tamed his hair enough to remove it from his face and dressed him similarly, only in black. 

"We come together for the union of two people, two families and two clans." The elder began, much the way he had for the Senju-Uzumaki alliance. "These two have chosen to join in a life-long commitment to each other, to carve space in their hearts for one another and create space in old families for new members and in the world, for a new family."

He paused, drawing their hands together.

"Such promises are not made lightly, and this binding is as spiritual as it is legal. Do you swear faith and fidelity to your spouse?"

"I do." Hashirama said. 

"And the to-be husband?"

"I do." He didn't hesitate. 

"Then I pronounce you husband and wife, partners facing your joint future."

The two leaned into each other, kissing simply and sweetly. Mito and Tobirama clapped the loudest, the happiest to see the union through. 

"I'm happy for you." Madara's cousin said to her. "You make him happy."

"I do my best." She replied. "Thank you for attending on such short notice."

"Of course. The elders have been trying to marry Madara for years." The second cousin said. "He's resisted whole-heartedly. Now, we see why."

"We've done the same for Hashirama." Her friend piped up good-naturedly. "Wanted to carry on her gift as swiftly as possible."

The two Uchiha watched her bristle lowly at the comment. Breed her, like a fertile mare, and have her to nothing but pass on her genes. The elder of the two clasped her on the shoulder. 

"Best of both worlds, I say. With them together, there'll be no village that can stop us. And if we're blessed enough to have children from their line, all the better."

* * *

As soon as the dinner was over, Tobirama and Mito took over the host duties and allowed Madera and Hashirama slip away. 

It wouldn't be their first time having sex, but it would be their first intimate moments together as a married couple, and all the more important for it. 

"You're stuck with me now." She teased, unlacing his garment and slipping it off him. 

"Oh no." He rolled his eyes. 

The neck of her kimono fell away and the dim candlelight caught the necklace, igniting it's green fire. 

"Beautiful." He whispered, pulling her close. "My wife."

"My husband." She smiled as widely as he'd ever seen it, reaching up to cup his face and kiss him. 

And thus the night continued. 

 

 


End file.
